![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Alex-van-den-Heever.jpg\")
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The National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill is incoherent, unconstitutional, and will limit people\u2019s access to healthcare. It is also highly unlikely to be implemented.<\/p>\n
This is the warning from Professor Alex van den Heever from the Wits Social Security Systems Administration and Management studies.<\/p>\n
Van den Heever\u2019s comments followed the National Council of Provinces passing the NHI Bill at a sitting in Cape Town.<\/p>\n
The NHI seeks to ensure all South Africans have access to quality healthcare services and provide for establishing a fund for this purpose.<\/p>\n
The NHI fund will be used to pay for almost all treatment from accredited providers, with rates to be set by the state.<\/p>\n
Private medical aid providers can only pay for products and services the fund does not cover.<\/p>\n
Van den Heever said while universal healthcare is a noble objective, it should not prevent people from covering themselves.<\/p>\n
He said the plan to create one system to serve everyone in the country has not been done anywhere and is unfeasible in a developing economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NHI Bill is incoherent and is inconsistent with equity and coherent institutional design. It is just not going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that the ruling ANC knows the NHI will not happen, so they say it will take a very long time to implement.<\/p>\n
He added that the NHI Bill is unconstitutional as it undermines people\u2019s right to choose healthcare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing wrong with somebody purchasing their own healthcare at the level at which they want to, as long as it does not affect another person\u2019s healthcare,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do it in education and housing. We implemented no framework in South Africa that prohibits you from using private services when public services are available.\u201d<\/p>\n
For example, people can not be stopped from using private security when there is a public police force to protect them.<\/p>\n
Van den Heever said it makes no sense to implement a law to prohibit you from paying for private healthcare should you desire.<\/p>\n
World-renowned economist Thomas Sowell said it is not up to the state to decide what a person needs or doesn\u2019t need.<\/p>\n
If a person has the money to pay for something, they should be free to buy what they want, including healthcare.<\/p>\n
The NHI Bill will restrict a person\u2019s choice because it will control the full healthcare system in the country.<\/p>\n
For example, if the state healthcare system decides you don\u2019t need a certain procedure, you cannot pay for it privately.<\/p>\n
It, therefore, severely restricts your choice and access to healthcare, which is unlikely to pass constitutional muster.<\/p>\n
The National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill is incoherent, unconstitutional, and will limit people\u2019s access to healthcare. It is also highly unlikely to be implemented. This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innov8ions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}